► This qualitative phenomenological study explored the experiences of eight high school counselors during the change to the single, college preparatory diploma in the State of…
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▼ This qualitative phenomenological study explored the experiences of eight high school
counselors during the change to the single, college preparatory diploma in the State of Georgia.
While this study addressed a change in policy at a state level, the debate over how to prepare
students for college and career is of national significance. Through semi-structured interviews and constant-comparative data analysis, four broad themes were identified: The high school counselor as academic advisor, “College” is a difficult term to define, Difficulty with the math curriculum: Some students just can’t do it, and Frustration with the policy and policy-makers.
Findings point to the complexity of how policy is perceived, interpreted, and implemented and the poignant intersection of policies and the core beliefs of those who are required to implement them. Implications for school counselors, school counselor educators, and recommendations for
future research are presented.
Advisors/Committee Members: Pamela O. Paisley.

Dehnke, S. J. (2011). School counselors' experiences of the single diploma: should all students prepare for college?. (Doctoral Dissertation). University of Georgia. Retrieved from http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/dehnke_stacy_j_201105_phd

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Dehnke, Stacy Joann. “School counselors' experiences of the single diploma: should all students prepare for college?.” 2011. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Georgia. Accessed January 21, 2019.
http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/dehnke_stacy_j_201105_phd.

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

Dehnke, Stacy Joann. “School counselors' experiences of the single diploma: should all students prepare for college?.” 2011. Web. 21 Jan 2019.

Vancouver:

Dehnke SJ. School counselors' experiences of the single diploma: should all students prepare for college?. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Georgia; 2011. [cited 2019 Jan 21].
Available from: http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/dehnke_stacy_j_201105_phd.

Council of Science Editors:

Dehnke SJ. School counselors' experiences of the single diploma: should all students prepare for college?. [Doctoral Dissertation]. University of Georgia; 2011. Available from: http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/dehnke_stacy_j_201105_phd

► In this thesis, multiple ground target tracking algorithms are studied. From different aspects of the ground target tracking, three different types of tracking algorithms are…
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▼ In this thesis, multiple ground target tracking algorithms are studied. From different aspects of the ground target tracking, three different types of tracking algorithms are proposed according to the specialties of the ground target motion and sensors employed.
Firstly, the dependent target tracking for ground targets is studied. State dependency is a common assumption in traditional target tracking algorithms, while this may not be the true in ground target tracking as the motion of targets are constraint to certain path. To enhance the tracking algorithm for ground targets, starting with the dependency assumption, Markov Random Field (MRF) based Probabilistic Data Association (PDA) approach is derived to associate motion dependent targets. The driving behavior model is introduced to describe motion relationship among targets. The Posterior Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (PCRLB) is derived for this new motion model. Experiments and simulations show that the proposed algorithm can reduce the false associations and improve the predictions. Eventually, the proposed approach alleviates issues like the track impurity and coalescence problem and achieves better performance comparing to standard trackers assuming state independence.
Ground target tracking using cameras is then studied. To build an efficient multi- target visual tracking algorithm, fast single target visual tracking is an important component. A novel visual tracking algorithm that has high speed and better or comparable performance to state-of-the-art trackers is proposed. The proposed approach solves the tracking task by using a mixed-motion proposal based particle filter with Ridge Regression observation likelihood calculation. This approach largely reduces the exhaustive searching in common state-of-art trackers while maintains efficient representation of the target appearance change. Experiments on 100 public benchmark videos, as well as a high frame rate benchmark, are carried out to compare the performance with the state-of-art published algorithms. The results of the experiment show the proposed tracker achieves good performance while beats other algorithms in speed with a large margin.
The proposed visual target tracker is integrated into a new multiple ground tar- get tracking algorithm using a single camera. The multi-target tracker addresses the issues in the target detection, data association and track management aside from the single target tracker. A perspective aware detection algorithm utilizing the re- cent advanced Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) based detector is proposed to detect multiple ground targets and alleviate the weakness of CNN detectors in detecting small objects. A hierarchical class tree based multi-class data association is presented to solve the multi-class association problem with potential misclassified detections. Track management is also improved utilizing the high efficiency detectors and a Support Vector Machine (SVM) based track deletion is proposed to correctly remove the dead tracks. Benchmarking is presented…
Advisors/Committee Members: Kirubarajan, Thia, Electrical and Computer Engineering.

► Location tracking is of paramount importance to many applications such as healthcare, retail and navigation. Outdoor tracking can be easily implemented using the Global Positioning…
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▼ Location tracking is of paramount importance to many
applications such as healthcare, retail and navigation. Outdoor
tracking can be easily implemented using the Global Positioning
System (GPS). However, indoor tracking has been a difficult problem
to tackle because GPS requires the line of sight to the satellites
and therefore it does not work well in indoor environments. In this
thesis, a high-precision indoor tracking system is proposed to
identify, locate and track a person in an indoor room at a low
cost. The proposed tracking system consists of three components:
StepscanTM tiles, RFID and Kalman-filter based prediction. The
StepscanTM tiles can generate precise location information.
However, using StepscanTM tiles only in an indoor tracking system
is too expensive because the manufacturing cost of each StepscanTM
tile is very high. In the proposed system, StepscanTM tiles are
deployed to cover a part of the indoor floor while RFID provides a
full coverage. The location information from StepscanTM tiles and
RFID is then used as inputs for our innovative prediction algorithm
based on the Kalman filter, which consequently generates
high-precision tracking results. The performance of the proposed
system is investigated through extensive simulations. Our
simulation results indicate that the proposed system increases the
capability to track and locate a person by at least 24% (more than
50% in some cases), with errors ranging from 2.5% to 15%.
Furthermore, the proposed system helps to reduce the cost of indoor
tracking significantly. In terms of the number of StepscanTM tiles
deployed in the system, a reduction of 7 to 25 tiles can be
achieved in the scenarios under investigation. In terms of monetary
cost, 21,000 to 75,000 can be saved for an indoor tracking system
considered in our research.
Advisors/Committee Members: n/a (external-examiner), Dirk V. Arnold (graduate-coordinator), Malcolm Heywood (thesis-reader), Nur Zincir Heywood (thesis-reader), Srinivas Sampalli, Qiang Ye (thesis-supervisor), Not Applicable (ethics-approval), Not Applicable (manuscripts), Not Applicable (copyright-release).

► A comprehensive history of tracking students by ability in the public high school science classroom is examined using peer reviewed journal articles and books published…
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▼ A comprehensive history of tracking students by ability in the public high school science classroom is examined using peer reviewed journal articles and books published over the last century. In this qualitative historical study, the major educational reforms and events from the twentieth century were analyzed to determine their impact on ability grouping practices. Additionally, the study sought to determine the commonalities between current and past ability grouping practices. It was determined that, despite the many changes that have occurred in tracking procedures over the past century, may elements remain from ability grouping’s conception that can inform current practices and help determine a future course of action.
Advisors/Committee Members: J. Steve Oliver.

Raven, S. (2010). A history of tracking in the public high school science classroom over the twentieth century. (Masters Thesis). University of Georgia. Retrieved from http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/raven_sara_201005_ma

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Raven, Sara. “A history of tracking in the public high school science classroom over the twentieth century.” 2010. Masters Thesis, University of Georgia. Accessed January 21, 2019.
http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/raven_sara_201005_ma.

MLA Handbook (7th Edition):

Raven, Sara. “A history of tracking in the public high school science classroom over the twentieth century.” 2010. Web. 21 Jan 2019.

Vancouver:

Raven S. A history of tracking in the public high school science classroom over the twentieth century. [Internet] [Masters thesis]. University of Georgia; 2010. [cited 2019 Jan 21].
Available from: http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/raven_sara_201005_ma.

Council of Science Editors:

Raven S. A history of tracking in the public high school science classroom over the twentieth century. [Masters Thesis]. University of Georgia; 2010. Available from: http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/raven_sara_201005_ma

In the last two decades mobile robots have become a subject of newlinesignificant interest because they raise a multitude of challenging problems on newlineone hand…
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▼

In the last two decades mobile robots have become a
subject of newlinesignificant interest because they raise a
multitude of challenging problems on newlineone hand and also they
are open to a broad range of possible applications on newlinethe
other hand An important problem being faced by manufacturers in the
newlineindustry is how automatically backs up a truck like mobile
robot to a specified newlinepoint on a loading dock while loading
or unloading Backing a truck to a newlineloading dock in the
loading zone is difficult exercise for all but the most
newlineskilled truck drivers newline newline

While various online multi-target tracking methods have been proposed recently, most of their runtime speed struggle at 1-10 frames per second for moderate crowded scenes.…
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▼

While various online multi-target tracking methods
have been proposed recently, most of their runtime speed struggle
at 1-10 frames per second for moderate crowded scenes. In this
thesis, we present a novel real-time multi-target tracking system
based on the tracking-by-detection framework. Our system is
designed for tracking a variable number of interacting targets from
a single, static, above shoulder camera, which is a general setting
for video surveillance. One challenge in our approach is that when
background subtraction is used for detecting moving targets, merged
measurements occur frequently because of target interactions. To
cope with the problem, we propose to use correlation filter based
object detector to robustly separate the targets in merged
measurements. Then, online object tracking assisted data
association is used to solve the track-measurement assignment. To
reduce computation load, our object tracking algorithm is assisted
by correlations filter based trackers which share the same features
used by our object detector. In addition, to recover partially
occluded targets, we allow unconfident detections to be assigned to
tracks whilst care is taken to avoid introducing additional false
positives. We also analyze the online approximation to
multi-channel correlation filters. Our experiments show that exact
solution is more resistant to noisy channels than approximate
solution. Evaluation on generally accepted datasets reveals that
the proposed system is comparable to state-of-the-art methods in
terms of performance while running several magnitudes faster.
Additionally, we show that the proposed system can be readily
implemented on the Texas Instruments TMS320C6678 DSP (C6678)
without significant degradation in speed or performance. Details on
efficient implementation of the system is also discussed.
Especially, for computing Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG)
feature, our optimized implementation runs at 60fps on VGA images
on a single core of C6678, which is 10 times faster than a directly
ported implementation.

► Attention plays an important role in the formation of accurate feature bindings. However, the role of attention in maintaining feature bindings is not as well…
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▼ Attention plays an important role in the formation of accurate feature bindings. However, the role of attention in maintaining feature bindings is not as well established. Some research supports the theory that attention is needed to maintain feature bindings in visual working memory (VWM), while other research suggests that bindings remain intact after the withdrawal of attention. Experiment 1 of current study tested this hypothesis by replicating the findings that feature bindings are more difficult to remember than individual features in a whole report change detection task. Experiment 2 directly measured attention through eye tracking and manipulated whether a change occurred to an object within the focus of attention, a previously attended object, or an unattended object. The results of Experiment 2 suggest that attention is not required to maintain feature bindings. Together, the results of the current study suggest that while feature bindings may be more difficult to remember than individual features in some instances, attention is not required to maintain feature bindings in VWM.

► This dissertation investigates the relationship between various input for education (such as class structure and academic environment) and academic outcomes (including majors and test scores).…
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▼ This dissertation investigates the relationship between various input for education (such as class structure and academic environment) and academic outcomes (including majors and test scores). It also looks at the impact of education on individuals’ non-academic outcomes. This dissertation consists of three essays. The first chapter examines the impact of assigning students into different tracks on students’ academic performance and subject specialization in China. I make use of regression discontinuity design and find that track assignment significantly affects choice of majors and test scores in high school. For students around the tracking threshold, being assigned to a high track reduces the probability of choosing the science major by 7 percent for boys and 21 percent for girls. The second chapter examines the impact of international peers on domestic students STEM degree in U.S.. I use historical enrollment patterns as an instrumental variable to predict current enrollment of international students and find that the composition and ability of international peers significantly affect the likelihood of graduating with a STEM degree for female and minority domestic students. The third chapter explores the casual relationship from education to religious beliefs in China. I exploit the change in compulsory school law in China in 1986 and find that one additional year of schooling reduce the probability of being religious by 8 percent.
Advisors/Committee Members: Linden, Leigh L., 1975- (advisor), Murphy, Richard J (committee member), Antonovics, Kate (committee member), Geruso, Michael L (committee member).

► Visual tracking has been an active and fruitful topic in computer vision these days since it is a very important component for a wide range…
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▼ Visual tracking has been an active and fruitful topic
in computer vision these days since it is a very important
component for a wide range of practical systems such as
surveillance, robotics, multimedia information retrieval,
human-computer interaction. In this dissertation, our goal is to
track an object of interest persistently with respect to the
appearance changes caused by illumination variations, viewpoint
changes, and out-of-plane rotation. An object also may leave the
field of view then reappear. In order to track and reacquire an
unknown object with limited labeling data, we propose to learn
these changes online and build a model that encodes all appearance
variations while tracking. To address visual object tracking as a
semi-supervised problem, we propose a co-trained cascade particle
filter framework to label incoming data continuously and online
update hybrid models generatively and discriminatively. Each of the
layers in the cascade contains one or more either generative or
discriminative appearance models. The cascade manner of organizing
the particle filter enables the efficient evaluation of multiple
appearance models with different computational costs, thus, improve
the speed of the tracker. This proposed framework provides not only
the ability to adapt to object appearance changes but also an
object-specific detection capability which allows to reacquire an
object after total occlusion. ❧ One of the vital issues of visual
tracking is drifting where partial occlusion is a critical factor.
We propose to use the co-training framework of generative and
discriminative models to detect where the occlusion occurs. Precise
occlusion segmentation is then performed using Meanshift. After
that, the occluded parts are recovered using the learned
information from the models. We also propose to use local feature
movement voting scheme to serve as a referee when there is a strong
disagreement between the two models. Finally, each of the models
will be updated using the new non-occluded information. ❧ Another
major factor causing tracking failure is the emergence of regions
having similar appearance as the target. It is even more
challenging when the target leaves the field of view (FoV) leading
the tracker to follow another similar object, and not reacquire the
right target when it reappears. We propose a method to address this
problem by exploiting the context on-the-fly in two terms:
Distracters and Supporters. Both of them are automatically explored
using a sequential randomized forest, an online template-based
appearance model, and local features. Distracters are regions,
which have similar appearance as the target and consistently
co-occur with a high confidence score. The tracker must keep
tracking these distracters to avoid drifting. Supporters, on the
other hand, are local key-points around the target with consistent
co-occurrence and motion correlation in a short time. They play an
important role in verifying the genuine target. ❧ To demonstrate
the feasibility of our proposed framework, we apply it…
Advisors/Committee Members: Medioni, Gerard (Committee Chair), Morency, Louis-Philippe (Committee Member), Narayanan, Shrikanth S. (Committee Member).

► Public schools are examining their policies and instructional practices to address the achievement gap exposed by the reporting requirements of NCLB (Wenglinski, 2004). As…
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▼ Public schools are examining their policies and instructional practices to address the achievement gap exposed by the reporting requirements of NCLB (Wenglinski, 2004). As accountability measures and stakes rise, there is a call for an improved use ofscientific evidence to inform educational policymaking (Wiseman, 2010). In terms ofthe achievement gap, national studies at the secondary level show when students are grouped according to ability there is a rise in achievement inequality between the groups (Gamoran & Mare, 1989; Hoffer, 1992). The purpose ofthis study is to determine ifthere is a tangible, measurable academic benefit to homogeneously grouping high school honors English students in a diverse, suburban school district in Washington State.
The following research question guided this study: To what extent, ifany, does ability grouping ofhigh achieving students defmed as 9th and 10th grade honors English students in a suburban Washington State school district, affect their performance on state and pre-college assessments ofreading and writing achievement when controlling for student mutable variables?
The research design used a non-experimenta~ explanatory associational design. Student achievement measures were examined before, during, and after high school students were placed in either like-ability (homogeneous) or mixed-ability (heterogeneous) groups when receiving honors English instruction in both their 9th and 10th grade years.
The findings ofthis study indicate that type ofgrouping is not always a significant contributor to students' scores on state and pre-college assessments ofreading and writing achievement. In models where grouping was a significant contributor, the favored grouping type was not homogeneous but heterogeneous grouping.
Due to the relatively small sample size ofthis study, it is recommended that additional studies be done to answer the research question. This question is essential in our educational system's continued pursuit ofequality of educational outputs; or in other words, closing and eliminating the achievement gap. It is recommended that a larger-scale experimental, quantitative study be done to determine if the results of this study can be replicated.
Advisors/Committee Members: Gerard Babo, Ed.D., James Culfield, Ed.D., Joseph Potts, Ph.D..

Hostetter DP. Does Homogenous Ability Grouping for High School Honors English Instruction Benefit the High Achiever?. [Doctoral Dissertation]. Seton Hall University; 2013. Available from: http://scholarship.shu.edu/dissertations/1901

► An algorithm for autonomous multirotor tracking of an arbitrary number of ground targets is formulated and evaluated through simulation. The algorithm consists of a particle…
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▼ An algorithm for autonomous multirotor tracking of an arbitrary number of ground targets is formulated and evaluated through simulation. The algorithm consists of a particle filter to predict target motion, trajectory generator, and model predictive controller operating over a finite time horizon. Furthermore, a target selection algorithm is included to reject targets that preclude accurate tracking of the main target set. Performance of the guidance algorithm is evaluated through simulation using real-world target data. Simulation results show that targets can be kept within the camera?s field of view when using either a gimbaled or non-gimbaled camera, but performance may be substantially degraded in the non-gimbaled case when target dynamics occur on time scales similar to tracking vehicle dynamics.
Advisors/Committee Members: Rogers, John (advisor), Bhatthacharya, Raktim (advisor), Rathinam, Sivakumar (committee member).

► An algorithm for autonomous multirotor tracking of an arbitrary number of ground targets is formulated and evaluated through simulation. The algorithm consists of a particle…
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▼ An algorithm for autonomous multirotor tracking of an arbitrary number of ground targets is formulated and evaluated through simulation. The algorithm consists of a particle filter to predict target motion, trajectory generator, and model predictive controller operating over a finite time horizon. Furthermore, a target selection algorithm is included to reject targets that preclude accurate tracking of the main target set. Performance of the guidance algorithm is evaluated through simulation using real-world target data. Simulation results show that targets can be kept within the camera?s field of view when using either a gimbaled or non-gimbaled camera, but performance may be substantially degraded in the non-gimbaled case when target dynamics occur on time scales similar to tracking vehicle dynamics.
Advisors/Committee Members: Rogers, John (advisor), Bhatthacharya, Raktim (advisor), Rathinam, Sivakumar (committee member).

► Multi-target tracking is a problem that involves estimating target states from noisy data whilst simultaneously deciding which measurement was produced by each target. The Probabilistic…
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▼ Multi-target tracking is a problem that involves estimating target states from noisy data whilst simultaneously deciding which measurement was produced by each target. The Probabilistic
Multi-Hypothesis Tracker (PMHT) is an algorithmthat solves the multi-target tracking problem. This thesis presents extensions to the PMHT to address problems that may arise in the use of real sensors and considers multi-target tracking techniques for use in other applications such as autonomous vehicles. It is generally assumed that a sensor collects a set of noisy position measurements at known times. In some situations, the time information may not be reliable and cause filtering issues. This thesis derives an extension to the PMHT that introduces an assignment index that identifies the true time at which a measurement was collected. This extension of the PMHT allows for tracking on measurements with time errors, such as time delays. A further extension allows the PMHT algorithm to simultaneously estimate the time error parameters whilst tracking targets. The above extension is applied to the problem of planning paths for multiple platforms to explore an unknown area. Given a set of locales to be visited and the platform initial positions, the path planning problem has the same mathematical form as a multi-target tracking problem, with locales as measurements and the platforms as targets. The extended PMHT algorithm uses hypothesised time-stamps to associate locales to platforms and times simultaneously. Autonomous vehicles are expected to use information from their sensors to navigate and map their environment. Simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) is the name given to this task and is essentially a multi-target tracking problem. This thesis proposes the use of PMHT and landmark classification information received with measurements to improve the performance of SLAM.
Advisors/Committee Members: Gray, Douglas Andrew (advisor), School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (school).

► The traditional high concentrating photovoltaic systems have proved to be expensive as they use high grade silicon solar cells, highly specular reflecting materials and require…
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▼ The traditional high concentrating photovoltaic systems have proved to be expensive as they use high grade silicon solar cells, highly specular reflecting materials and require tracking arrangements which are equally expensive. The problem of un-even illumination creates heat-sinks which have not been solved in high concentrating systems. This thesis addresses the problem of un-even illumination in low concentrating photovoltaic systems using low cost reflecting materials for low-cost electricity. The large module cells are replaced by small string modules and the highly specular materials are replaced with low-cost diffuse materials.Concentrating sunlight onto a solar module has an effect of hot-spot formation which reduces the fill factor and hence the efficiency of the photovoltaic system. To address this problem, diffuse reflectors with rolling marks either parallel or perpendicular to the plane of the module were tested in low Concentrating photovoltaic systems. The changes in the fill factor were monitored as different reflector materials were replaced within concentrator geometries. It was experimentally shown that diffuse reflectors gave better fill-factor than specular reflectors. It was further demonstrated that diffuse reflectors with rolling grooves aligned parallel to the plane of the module gave better fill-factor than
diffuse reflectors with rolling grooves aligned perpendicular to the plane of the module surface. In particular, the power increased by a factor of 2 in all reflector materials studied but the drop in the fill factor was 28% for rolling marks parallel to the plane of the module as compared to 30% for rolling marks perpendicular to the plane of the module. The parallel rolling marks (horizontal grooves) gave improved fill factor. Probably the rolling marks scattered the solar flux within the concentrator geometry at large angles and hence evenly illuminated the solar cell module area. The vertical grooves on the other hand had low angle scattering of the solar flux and could not spread the solar flux along the plane of the module. The vertical orientation of the grooves had similar performance as specular reflectors. Furthermore, the performance of the CPC geometry with semi-diffuse aluminium foil was under estimated due to construction errors as compared with anodized aluminium which gave a better performance as it was used as the base material. It was also verified that anodized aluminium, miro and rolled aluminium foil respectively, were the best reflector materials that withstood the environmental conditions.However, due to its low cost, the rolled aluminium foil was preferred for use in low concentrating photovoltaic systems.

► This thesis focuses on the problem of object tracking. Given a video, the general objective of tracking is to track the location over time of…
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▼ This thesis focuses on the problem of object tracking. Given a video, the general objective of tracking is to track the location over time of one or more targets in the image sequence. This is a very challenging task as algorithms need to deal with problems such as appearance variations, non-rigid deformations, cluttered background, occlusions etc. While most existing methods use bounding boxes to represent the target, we use segmentations instead, which provide better ac- cess to target pixels and can better handle occlusions. Our first contribution, is a new tracking algorithm that given an over-segmentation of a video tracks multiple targets through interactions and occlusions. We develop a provably convergent learning algorithm for this approach, which leverages training data to improve performance. Our second contribution targets the case when an over-segmentation is not available due to poor video quality or low resolution. For this case, we develop a new algorithm that tracks coherent regions and estimates the number of target objects in each region. This count representation of a video can be used to help inform more traditional tracking techniques. Finally, we develop the first tracking-by-segmentation approach based on deep learning. We propose a novel deep network architecture and training algorithms for learning to segment and track a target object throughout a video. All of our algorithms are rigorously evaluated on challenging benchmark video collections, which demonstrate improvements over the state-of-the-art.
Advisors/Committee Members: Fern, Alan (advisor), Todorovic, Sinisa (committee member).

▼ The ability to track multiple moving objects (e.g. cars on a roadway, players and/or balls in a sporting event, pedestrians in a crowded space) has been thought to be a parallel process, such that all the objects are tracked simultaneously (Howe et al., 2010). Others have asserted that some serial mechanism is involved in the tracking process, suggesting that there are shifts of attention from object to object in order to successfully track (Oksama & Hyönä, 2008). Subsequent research has demonstrated that changes in trajectory can attract attention (Howard & Holcombe, 2010) and that these localized changes in trajectory negatively affect tracking ability (Ericson & Beck, 2013). However, research has demonstrated that large global scene changes do not have an effect on tracking accuracy (Liu et al., 2005). Therefore, the current research investigated the attentional mechanisms that are used in object tracking. Specifically, this study investigated differences between global and localized changes in trajectory (Experiment 1), determined how long it takes temporally for shifts of attention to occur (Experiment 2), and investigated how parallel and serial mechanisms function together as a cohesive process (Experiment 3). Results from this study indicated that a parallel processing system for multiple object tracking is utilized. However, when two targets sequentially change trajectory abruptly within a specific temporal window tracking accuracy is reduced. This finding suggests that although tracking is primarily parallel, some attentional resources may be devoted or serially transferred towards specific target items. A hybrid resource model that uses both parallel and serial mechanism is discussed.

► The majority of American public school students are placed into classes based on their achievement levels as translated by standardized measures and career interests, sorted…
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▼ The majority of American public school students are placed into classes based on their achievement levels as translated by standardized measures and career interests, sorted into courses based on classifications such as fast, average, or slow. The practice of such sorting is referred to as tracking. Different curricular paths, or academic tracks, wield the power to direct the learning opportunities and future prospects available to students. Historically, advanced academic tracks have been reserved for White students, while Black and Latino students have represented the majority of the student population in lower tracks. In essence, tracking has served as a method for resegregating public schools.
Advisors/Committee Members: TERZIAN,SEVAN G (committee chair), BONDY,ELIZABETH (committee member), WALDRON,NANCY L (committee member).

Target tracking refers to the process of estimating the state of a moving object from remote and noisy measurements. In this thesis we consider the…
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▼

Target tracking refers to the process of estimating the state of a moving object from remote and noisy measurements. In this thesis we consider the Bayesian filtering framework to perform target tracking under nonlinear models, a target moving in continuous time, and measurements that are available in discrete time intervals (known as continuous-discrete). The Bayesian filtering theory establishes the mathematical basis to obtain the posterior probability density function of the state, given the measurement history. This probability density function contains all the information required about the state of the target. It is well documented that there is no exact solution for posterior density under the models mentioned. Hence, the approximation of such density functions have been studied for over four decades. The literature demonstrates that this has led to the development of multiple filters. In target tracking, due to the remote sensing performed, an additional complication emerges. The measurements received are not always from the desired target and could have originated from unknown sources, thus making the tracking more difficult. This problem is known as a measurement origin uncertainty. Additionally to the filters, different methods have been proposed to address the measurement origin uncertainty due to its negative impact, which could cause a false track. Unfortunately, a final solution has yet to be achieved. The first proposal of this thesis is a new approximate Bayesian filter for continuous-discrete systems. The new filter is a higher accuracy version of the cubature Kalman filter. This filter is developed using a fifth-degree spherical radial cubature rule and the Ito-Taylor expansion of order 1.5 for dealing with stochastic differential equations. The second proposal is an improved version of the probabilistic data association method. The proposed method utilizes the maximum likelihood values for selecting the measurements that are used for the data association. In the first experiment, the new filter is tested in a challenging 3-dimensional turn model, demonstrating superiority over other existing filters. In a second and third experiments, the proposed data association method is tested for target tracking in a 2-dimensional scenarios under heavy measurement origin uncertainty conditions. The second and third experiments demonstrate the superiority of the proposed data association method compared to the probabilistic data association.

► Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been widely adopted by different industries for various purposes. While implementing a RFID system for personnel tracking in an…
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▼ Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been widely adopted by different industries for various purposes. While implementing a RFID system for personnel tracking in an industrial environment, such as a hospital, the tracking accuracy is not always satisfactory due to incorrect placement of RFID hardware, coarse system configuration or environment. This thesis proposes comprehensive optimization methods for improving the tracking accuracy of a RFID system for personnel tracking. The improvement is achieved from four perspectives including RFID data cleaning, experimental design, data fusion and simulation modeling. This research is based on a case study carried out in a local community hospital where a RFID system for personnel tracking has been implemented. Through applying the optimization methods, the tracking accuracy of the RFID system has been improved to 87.33%. The thesis provides a guideline for the hospital and other similar application environment to implement improvement methods on a RFID tracking system.
Advisors/Committee Members: Peng, Qingjin (Mechanical Engineering) (supervisor), Nariman, Sepehri (Mechanical Engineering) Cai, Jun (Electrical and Computer Engineering) (examiningcommittee).

Bian, C. (2013). Improvement of RFID tracking accuracy for a personnel tracking system in healthcare. (Masters Thesis). University of Manitoba. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1993/24053

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Bian, Chao. “Improvement of RFID tracking accuracy for a personnel tracking system in healthcare.” 2013. Masters Thesis, University of Manitoba. Accessed January 21, 2019.
http://hdl.handle.net/1993/24053.

► This research examines some design features that may increase noticeability, readership and recall of warnings within the text of product ownerÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s manuals. Variables manipulated were…
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▼ This research examines some design features that may increase noticeability, readership and recall of warnings within the text of product ownerÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s manuals. Variables manipulated were warning saliency (e.g., low or high saliency), the physical placement of warnings in text (e.g., embedded versus separate), and text-directed cueing (e.g., low versus high salient cueing) in a fractional factorial design. Warnings were made salient by adding signal word panel color, alert symbol icons, bulleted text and black borders. Low salient warnings lacked those features and the warning was given in paragraph prose-style text. Two conditions, a non-eye tracked and an eye-tracked, underwent similar procedures to assess reading and recall of the warning information. Six groups comprised the non-eye tracked sample: each group viewed a unique condition with a unique combination of warning features. The eye-tracked sample viewed 2 opposing conditions with warning feature combinations that comprised a low and high salient condition. While there were no significant group differences in warning information recall accuracy in the non-eye tracked samples, the low salient conditions in the eye-tracked samples had higher recall accuracy than the high salient conditions. Also, the high salient conditions with high salient cues, significantly shifted visual attention to cued warnings more often than the low salient conditions with low salient cues. However, the eye-tracked sample failed to show significance differences for noticing and reading between low and high salient conditions. In addition, the assessment of the first three fixations indicated that participants may initially scan page contents before reading onset at the top left corner of the page, however fixation locations were not influenced by warning locations. Future research directions and study implications are addressed.
Advisors/Committee Members: Michael S. Wogalter, Committee Co-Chair (advisor), Eric N. Wiebe, Committee Co-Chair (advisor), Douglas J. Gillan, Committee Member (advisor).

► This thesis explores how to use real-time stereo vision to detect, track, and identify people in a surveillance scenario. The introduction of stereo vision significantly…
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▼ This thesis explores how to use real-time stereo
vision to detect, track, and identify people in a surveillance
scenario. The introduction of stereo vision significantly impacts
this traditional computer vision application, which is currently
dominated by monocular sensors. The additional depth information
provided by stereo vision brings the object detection, tracking,
and identification problems from the 2-d image domain to the 3-d
world domain. This translation results in dramatic performance
improvements. To enable this approach, several problems need to be
solved.First, the system must perform in real-time. Surveillance
systems usually operate without interruption, 24 hours a day. If
the incoming video cannot be processed in real-time, the
unprocessed data accumulates and eventually overflows the storage
system. In addition, surveillance systems often need to respond
immediately to certain events which require prompt handling. This
thesis proposes a GPGPU-based stereo algorithm to deliver real-time
performance on fairly high resolution.Second, detecting objects
from video data usually involves a background model which estimates
the behavior of the background scene. In the case of a stereo
camera, a model which combines both appearance and depth
information is proposed. This new stereo-based background model not
only detects foreground regions from dynamic and cluttered
backgrounds, but also detects moving shadows with high confidence.
Based on this enhanced background modeling, object detection and
tracking are performed on a top-down plan-view map, through which
the uncertainty due to occlusion is handled with ease.A new
approach to identifying person is also proposed so that tracking
and searching individuals in a sparsely deployed camera network is
possible. This new approach is based on a selective collection of
3-d enhanced local image features detected from a certain object,
along with an efficient representation of the spatial structure
relations amongst those features. Compared to existing approaches,
this approach shows significantly improved performance especially
on objects with flexible structure. Finally, a multi-resolution
object descriptor compression scheme offers a solution to the
problem of scalability in the proposed people identification
algorithm.
Advisors/Committee Members: Taubin, Gabriel (Director), Mundy, Joseph (Reader), Jannotti, John (Reader).

► In the field of complex fluid, such as emulsions, polymer, colloids or surfactant solutions, an interesting research process is to analysis their multiphase characters. The…
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▼ In the field of complex fluid, such as emulsions,
polymer, colloids or surfactant solutions, an interesting research
process is to analysis their multiphase characters. The primary
difference between fluids and solids is how they respond to the
shear stress: Pure fluid, which is viscous, tends to dissipate the
mechanical energy, whereas a solid, which is more likely to store
the energy, is elastic. For materials like complex fluids, their
viscoelastic characters, which vary with the frequency, let them
both store and dissipate the energy. Those characters are
represented as complex shear modulus G*(ω). The viscous component
is the imaginary part of G*(ω), which is also called the loss
modulus G’’(ω); the elastic component is the real part of G*(ω),
which is also called the storage modulus G’(ω). Usually, a good
rheology method is to apply an oscillatory shear strain with
different frequencies. With a given angular speed and temperature,
the torque required to rotate the plate contacting with the fluid
is measured, and the storage and loss modulus from the shear stress
are calculated from the torque. To use this method, a rotor is used
to rotate the fluid at different frequencies, and we calculate the
viscous and elastic modulus (G’ G’’). C. Wilhelm et al. tested two
modulus of Laponite colloidal suspension in 2002. The thesis
introduces a new method of testing visco-elastic of fluid in high
frequency by using the microscope and high speed camera. To test
the viscosity and elastic characters of a solution, particles are
tracked to calculate the mean squared displacement(MSD), using
Laplace transformation on MSD to have the viscous and elastic
modulus. T.G. Mason et al. recorded MSD of 0.21µm polystyrene latex
particles in 15% polyethylene oxide solution; they also tested the
Diffusing wave spectroscopy(DWS) measurements on ethylene glycol
solution with 0.21µm silica particles. For both experiments, they
had the visco-elastic modulus at the highest frequency of 20Hz. G.
D. Jay et al. tested 6 different kinds of fluid, including both
Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids. For complex fluid, the highest
frequency of visco elastic modulus was 100Hz/ To calculate the MSD,
a commonly using method for tracking particles is to calculate the
displacement of two images. One particle on the first image is
focused on, around which a searching area is defined. The closest
particle inside the searching area in the following image is
regarded as the same particle as the first one. When there are no
particles in the searching area, it means that the particles
disappear from the field of the microscope. With this result, we
have the displacement of one time interval (the time between two
neighboring images, and the displacement belongs to the same
particle). Integrating the displacement for each particle, we have
the displacement for larger time intervals. This method has a good
tracking result for large particles and low frequency. On one hand,
the random walk for large particles is small, which is easy to be
defined as correlated…
Advisors/Committee Members: Breuer, Kenneth (Advisor).

► Central Venous Catheter (CVC) placement is a common surgical procedure, with an estimated 400,000 complications every year in the United States (Raad, 1998). There are…
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▼ Central Venous Catheter (CVC) placement is a common surgical procedure, with an estimated 400,000 complications every year in the United States (Raad, 1998). There are mechanical complications related to arterial puncture and pneumothorax derived from the wrong placement of the catheter at the insertion step, as well as over 80,000 catheter-related bloodstream infections in Intensive care Units every year (World Health Organization, 2015). The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recommends utilizing ultrasound (US) guidance for central line placement to minimize the complications. Nevertheless, taking into consideration all the recommendations and security measures given by the AHRQ, it is considered that the lack of proper training on central line placement is one of the reasons that contributes to complications. This study is the pioneering research towards the design of an “instructor-less” simulator that will self-monitor the performance of the trainee.
This dissertation is organized as follows. Chapter 1 shows a review of Central Venous Catheter (CVC) placement procedure. Chapter 2 gives an introduction to the current methods of training of CVC placement based on part-task trainers, computer-based simulators, and a hybrid combination of both technologies. Chapter 3 covers human factors considered for the posture and instrument handling related to the placement of CVCs. Chapter 4 includes current techniques used on computer-based CVC placement training and technologies such as electromagnetic sensors and computer vision.
Advisors/Committee Members: Luciano, Cristian J (advisor).

▼ In this thesis we directly consider an object tracking problem for wireless sensor networks (WSNs), called track persistence. Track persistence temporally extends the problem of object tracking by seeking to store and retrieve the entire history of an object. To provide an initial solution to track persistence, we develop two distinct algorithms. The first algorithm, update to sink, translates track persistence into a centralized problem. The second algorithm, a linked list-like algorithm, builds a dynamic data structure as the object traverses the network, and rebuilds the object history distributively upon demand. We conduct worst case analysis upon both of these algorithms. Finally, we implement a simulation environment and run a number of tests upon both algorithms. Track persistence is a very challenging problem, and this thesis contributes a pair of solutions which stand as a basis for future research.

▼ The DLOOP is a structure of non-overlapping tiles (typically
corner connected) occupying two layers. Interest in the DLOOP
arises from Photo-Voltaic (PV) tracking applications.
The tiles (PV modules) of contemporary tracking systems are
within one contiguous layer, i.e. a side-by-side platform (SSP).
Trees collect solar energy using branching structures to support
leaves which are, similar to PV modules, planar surfaces of solar
energy transformation. The tree's form is naturally excellent for
lowering structural stress in limbs and thermal stress in leaves.
For analogous reasons, related to the creation of flow paths that
would otherwise be blocked, this research hypothesised (and has
subsequently shown) that:
* the fluid (wind) dynamic force on tiles of high inclination SSP
may be reduced (up to 30%) adopting DLOOP arrangements; and
* the temperature of heated tiles in SSP may be reduced (up to 5K
within nominal and hot terrestrial environments), by passive
convective cooling, adopting DLOOP arrangements.
Fluid (wind) dynamic force is significant in PV applications
because it typically exceeds the force of gravity on the tiles of
SSP in 13m/s winds and increases with velocity squared. Hence
reducing wind force by 30% should allow 40% more tiles to be
fitted to contemporary tracking mechanisms.
Temperature is significant in PV applications because the
performance of PV tiles typically falls 0.4%/K. Hence a 5K
reduction in temperature should improve efficiency 2%.
A combination of wind-tunnel tests, Particle Image Velocimetry
and Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations using Reynolds
Averaged Navier Stokes and Large Eddy Simulation turbulence
models was used for the fluid dynamic research.
A combined Finite Element/CFD simulation of PV panels in
platforms was developed to model temperature outcomes of thermal
diffusion in solid materials and thermal diffusion, radiation and
convection in the fluid (air).
If PV-tracking ranges are limited below those of the
solar-vector, shading of the DLOOP lower by the upper layer
occurs. This DLOOP self-shading raises unique cost-benefits
associated with tracking ranges. Consequently, this research
develops a means to quantify the insolation received by platforms
accounting for technology and tracking range in diverse
(Australian) climates.
Additionally, multiple tracking platforms may be placed in close
proximity and suffer "Parasitic" energy losses when shaded by
self-similar neighbours. Therefore, this research study
introduces a natural no-shade scale to describe and optimise
field layouts according to local insolation and economic
conditions.

► We present our work on multiple pedestrians tracking in a single camera and across multiple non-overlapping cameras. We propose an approach for online learning of…
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▼ We present our work on multiple pedestrians tracking
in a single camera and across multiple non-overlapping cameras. We
propose an approach for online learning of discriminative
appearance models for robust multi-target tracking in a crowded
scene. Although much progress has been made in developing methods
for optimal data association, there has been comparatively less
work on the appearance model, which is the key element for good
performance. Many previous methods either use simple features such
as color histograms, or focus on the discriminability between a
target and the background which do not resolve ambiguities between
the different targets. We propose an algorithm for learning
discriminative appearance models for different targets. Training
samples are collected online from tracklets within a time sliding
window based on some spatial-temporal constraints; this allows the
models to adapt to target instances. Learning uses an AdaBoost
algorithm that combines effective image descriptors and their
corresponding similarity measurements. We term the learned models
as OLDAMs. Our evaluations indicate that OLDAMs have significantly
higher discrimination between different targets than conventional
holistic color histograms, and when integrated into a hierarchical
association framework, they help improve the tracking accuracy,
particularly reducing the false alarms and identity switches. ❧
Furthermore, we extend our approach to multiple non-overlapping
cameras. Given the multi-target tracking results in each camera, we
propose a framework to associate those tracks. Collecting reliable
training samples is a major challenge in on-line learning since
supervised correspondence is not available at runtime. To alleviate
the inevitable ambiguities in these samples, Multiple Instance
Learning (MIL) is applied to learn an appearance affinity model
which effectively combines three complementary image descriptors
and their corresponding similarity measurements. Based on the
spatial-temporal information and the proposed appearance affinity
model, we present an improved inter-camera track association
framework to solve the ""target handover"" problem across cameras.
Our evaluations indicate that our method has higher discrimination
between different targets than previous methods.
Advisors/Committee Members: Nevatia, Ramakant (Committee Chair), Medioni, Gerard G. (Committee Member), Leahy, Richard M. (Committee Member).

► Eye movements during real-world scene viewing have been shown to be influenced by two main mechanisms of attention allocation: bottom-up and top-down. The exact effect…
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▼ Eye movements during real-world scene viewing have been shown to be influenced by two main mechanisms of attention allocation: bottom-up and top-down. The exact effect each mechanism has on attention allocation is the focus of much debate, however, the use of eye-trackers has allowed progress towards a more comprehensive understanding. Here we utilise the Itti and Koch (2000) model of saliency-based search to manipulate a critical object within forty-eight real-world images. In doing so, we aim to analyse the effect of visual saliency on attention allocation during real-world scene viewing and active search. To examine the effect of visual saliency and task demands on attention allocation we recorded the time taken to first fixate on a critical object within each scene, as well as first fixation durations and average saccade amplitudes. In addition, semantic congruence of the critical object was manipulated in 50% of the real-world images. Results from two experiments indicate that task demands significantly influence time taken to first fixate on the critical object. Contrary to previous research, it was observed that attention allocation during real-world scene viewing is guided predominately by higher level cognitive factors. Conversely, attention allocation during active search was influenced predominately by low-level visual features. Interactions of saliency and semantic congruence were also observed. Together these results suggest that a single attention allocation mechanism is not sufficient to explain the diversity of eye movement patterns recorded and that additional research is required to fully understand the factors influencing attention allocation during real-world scene viewing and active search.
Advisors/Committee Members: Henderson, John.

Welensky, Z. (2008). The effect of task demands and artificially manipulated object salience on visual attention in real world scenes. (Thesis). University of Edinburgh. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1842/2901

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

Council of Science Editors:

Welensky Z. The effect of task demands and artificially manipulated object salience on visual attention in real world scenes. [Thesis]. University of Edinburgh; 2008. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1842/2901

Note: this citation may be lacking information needed for this citation format:Not specified: Masters Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation

University of Georgia

30.
Drake, Vicki Lynn.
High school students' perceptions of being tracked in science.

► The personal, social, academic, and future dimensions of being tracked are examined through the perceptions of nine high school seniors who have been tracked, especially…
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▼ The personal, social, academic, and future dimensions of being tracked are examined through the perceptions of nine high school seniors who have been tracked, especially in science. This qualitative case study used the theoretical perspective of symbolic interactionism and was conducted in a major southeastern suburban community that is evolving because of increasing multicultural immigration. The participants have been in a curriculum that uses academic tracking were individually interviewed as to their perceptions of the use of academic tracking. Three students from each of the academic levels, technical, college-prep, and honors/gifted, were purposely selected for participation. The focus of the questioning was on their perceptions of self, others, and their learning environment, especially in their science curriculum, as their assigned academic placements. Following the data collection, case and cross-case analyses were made using the constant comparison methodology. The voices of the participants affirm my belief that all students are not receiving a rigorous curriculum with high expectations. Their perceptions provide data that the use of academic tracking or academic segregation is negatively impacting many students in tracked schools. The findings also indicate that many students are not participating in a science curriculum that will enable them to achieve scientific literacy. The use of academic tracking provides too many options for students to choose to do less work and not participate in the necessary curriculum needed for true achievement to take place. Future legal implications are addressed as Courts may interpret that the use of academic tracking violates the rights provided by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Implications are also made that the use of academic tracking is contradictory to the goals of the National Science Education Standards.
Advisors/Committee Members: Norman Thomson.

Drake, V. L. (2003). High school students' perceptions of being tracked in science. (Doctoral Dissertation). University of Georgia. Retrieved from http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/drake_vicki_l_200308_edd

Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition):

Drake, Vicki Lynn. “High school students' perceptions of being tracked in science.” 2003. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Georgia. Accessed January 21, 2019.
http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/drake_vicki_l_200308_edd.

Drake VL. High school students' perceptions of being tracked in science. [Internet] [Doctoral dissertation]. University of Georgia; 2003. [cited 2019 Jan 21].
Available from: http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/drake_vicki_l_200308_edd.

Council of Science Editors:

Drake VL. High school students' perceptions of being tracked in science. [Doctoral Dissertation]. University of Georgia; 2003. Available from: http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/uga_etd/drake_vicki_l_200308_edd